With all the frenzied speculation on the now-postponed climate change bill from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), many in Congress have been overlooking the chance to pass landmark legislation that could reduce pollution and provide meaningful health and environmental benefits.

That’s right. We can pass bipartisan multipollutant legislation to guarantee significant reductions in mercury, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from power plants — while providing the regulatory certainty needed to advance cleaner, more efficient technologies.

I have worked with Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) on multipollutant legislation for years. In fact, we worked on a bill introduced by former Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) when he chaired the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works in 2002.

In 2005, when I served as the committee chairman and Voinovich served as chairman of the Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, we tried to pass bipartisan legislation. But it died in committee.

Recognizing the need to reduce power plant emissions, the Bush administration had pressed ahead without Congress and issued the Clean Air Interstate Rule and the Clean Air Mercury Rule.

Voinovich and I supported those. But we also warned that they would face legal challenge and an uncertain regulatory future. Sadly, we were proven right, when the D.C. court vacated both rules.

One effect of these decisions has been a severely depressed emissions trading market. Some companies postponed plant upgrades. Progress has stalled.

The Environmental Protection Agency is now busy crafting replacement rules. But just how it will address key questions — for example, how to integrate allowances from the Acid Rain Trading Program into a new trading regime and whether this includes interstate emissions trading — remains unclear.

Only Congress can provide the needed clarity and certainty.

But the global warming debate has been a distraction. The Senate is wasting time on legislation that, even if passed, would fail to achieve its stated goal of reducing global temperatures. There’s an opportunity right now to make significant environmental progress — while ensuring cleaner, more affordable and more reliable electricity for consumers.

Fortunately, a group of influential senators is trying to seize that opportunity. That group includes two senior members from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who, along with several Democratic and Republican senators, recently introduced Clean Air Act amendments to reduce sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury from power plants.

While the bill can be improved in several important respects, it is a good start. The compromise that eluded us in 2005 is possible in 2010.

One critical point of the multipollutant debate is addressing the long list of overlapping and conflicting air-pollution mandates set to unfold under the Clean Air Act in the next decade.

Some environmental activists may view this as a sure-fire means of reducing pollution. But, in reality, this regulatory morass could lead to a wave of litigation that won’t be resolved for years. Some of those very activists may file lawsuits.

This is not meant to cast aspersions — only to make clear that without a multipollutant framework passed by Congress, the timing and extent of emissions reductions could be mired in legal uncertainty.

Yet this future is not carved in stone.

If Congress tackles these issues now, we can lock in emissions reductions for decades. We can also draw a clear legal road map to ease the transition to cleaner technologies and provide consumers with affordable, reliable power to meet their daily demands.

Discussions on multipollutant legislation have already begun. My hope is that they will continue even amid the debate on climate change.

Instead of imposing massive taxes on consumers with no discernible climate benefits — as was talked about in the Kerry-Graham-Lieberman proposal — we can provide real health and environmental benefits and encourage installation of new technologies, while keeping utility costs affordable.

This is the pathway to real environmental progress — one Congress should follow.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) is the ranking member on the Committee on Environment and Public Works.